What can I say about sea days, save for that the most important thing one can do is relax. We were glad that we had this day to rest, as our bodies were on New York time, and we were now sailing in Central European time.
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The first thing on our docket was a "Deluxe Balcony Breakfast for Two." Although we could have had a table set up for us on our balcony, we chose to have this spread set up on a table in our cabin. There was an Assortment of Pastries, a Melon dish, a Smoked Salmon dish, and Quiche Lorraine to eat, along with coffee, orange juice, and sparkling wine to wash it down. We were stuffed to the gills before 10:30 came around, and there was no way we were going to have lunch at a normal time.
After a chance to rest, we went to afternoon tea. Although this might not have been as fancy a presentation as is done on one of Princess's sister lines (Cunard), it was well worth the effort to enjoy this sea day activity. Once done, we proceeded to Rudi's Catch (Princess's specialty seafood restaurant) to change our scheduled time for the first of our specialty dinners. Princess's app forced us to choose an 8:30 pm dining time, while we wanted something earlier. Luckily, the restaurant we chose had quite a few openings for 7:00 pm, and we jumped at that slot. Then, we took another short nap, still dealing with our body clocks being out of sync with local time.
Around 6:15 pm, we started to get dressed for a formal night. I surprised RQS by wearing a tie with my male "casual formal" garb (read: blue blazer, dress grey slacks, and a button down shirt), while I'd have rather been presenting as Marian in a nice LBD with pearls. (She joked that she'd help me practice with this, and I said - no thanks....) Then, it was off to Rudi's.
Princess made a big mistake with the design of Rudi's Catch on this ship. Both their Steakhouse and Italian restaurants are separated from places where people gather (and where music is performed) by a sound blocking partition or wall. This is not the case with Rudi's Catch. It is right off the main atrium, where a band playing loud music can make it impossible for anyone to have a conversation. Most importantly, the volume of this music makes it hard for restaurant staff to communicate with both its patrons and other staff members. (Princess should fire the people who made this design decision, and find a way to separate this restaurant from the noise from the atrium as soon as possible. But I digress.)
As much as I enjoyed my meal at Rudi's on my last cruise, I was wishing we were somewhere else for this meal. We enjoyed an appetizer with a small lobster tail. I had chosen the Three S (shrimp, scallops and salmon) main course, while RQS chose a dinner portion of lump crab cakes - a big mistake, as the crab cakes had no flavor. (Later on, I said that RQS should have ordered one of the main courses and not eat everything. But RQS hates to waste food without good reason.) Neither of us were impressed by the Crepes Suzette we had for dessert. In short, we could have skipped this dinner and had gone to the buffet for a better meal. Hopefully, this restaurant will do better on our second visit later on in the cruise.
Once done with dinner, we called it a night.
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If you've gotten this far.... HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY!!!!
